Larry Barkdull

 

A principle of deliverance that is widely overlooked is the simple act of charity. When times are the hardest and there seems no hope on the horizon, we might try reaching out to someone and expect, in the process, to nudge open the door of deliverance. A recent example of generosity taught me how Zion people can save others and in the process find their deliverance.

 

A few weeks ago I became aware of a family that was expecting nothing for Christmas…again! I could count three consecutive Christmas mornings on which they had awakened to nothing under the tree. Not that that should matter. Christmas, as we know, is so much more than packages and bows. But it does matter, especially when there are children.

 

So I checked my wallet and found it bare. Being a professional writer and working in a non-profit company, I depend on royalties and grants for the projects we support. Royalties are a few months off, and the grant we had been working on for nearly two years was once again delayed. If prayer and fasting could have landed it in our coffers, we would have had the money months ago. Now it seemed more distant that ever.

 

When I thought of my destitute friends, all I could do was mourn. I took my concern to the Lord, and asked, “What can I do? I have nothing to give.” A thought entered my mind, Yes you do. As I mulled over the answer, the impression of other friends came to me-some who were also struggling financially or with serious issues. Frequently, I had prayed for these people. I asked, “I should approach them?” I felt a little ashamed asking people whom had little to give. But the impression was that by giving they would be blessed. I arose and began to make calls.

 

I should point out that many of my friends are artists whom I have helped in my foundation. They have art and product, but not too much money. When I called them, I explained that I had a friend who was in need and would they be willing to contribute some product. What happened next was a miracle. My simple request to help one family grew within 48 hours to impact nearly thirty families! Each time I went to pick up gifts from one person, he (or she) would say, “I know of someone whom I would like to help, too.” Then I would call my network and additional commitments were made. When I finally had gathered everything for the first family, I shipped four large boxes of gifts, and I still had many more to gifts to pass around. I suddenly understood why there are no poor in Zion and why Zion is always described in terms of beauty and abundance.

 

Then came the miracles to my giving friends. One couple received an unexpected contract for $10,000. On the same day, a husband who had lost his employment was offered a new job. Another family that had been waiting for two years for a contract finally received that one plus an additional contract. A woman who had been struggling with a serious question received an answer. And our foundation received its grant.

 

What a powerful principle is a simple act of charity!

 

Giving ourselves free

 

I learned a great lesson from my generous friends. Deliverance seems to pivot on our willingness to shed selfishness and summon the courage to give and extend charity. The people of Limhi had tried every conceivable way to deliver themselves and could not. It was only when they began to take care of the widows and orphans that the Lord’s deliverance came.

 

This powerful principle-charity opens the door to deliverance–is so simple that we often miss it. As we know, giving time, talents and means can be manifested telestially, terrestrially and celestially. A telestial person will not give unless he is forced to or if he can receive something in return. A terrestrial person will give if he already has something to give. A celestial person will give despite his circumstances because he knows that the Lord will compensate him “an hundredfold” and will grant him his desire to give again. This quality of charitable giving breaks the bonds of captivity. With the unselfish motivation of pure love, we can literally give ourselves free!

 

We recall that despite a lifetime of extending charity, Job, in the darkest hour of his life, was required to give yet one more time and his charity liberated him: “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.” Most certainly, his past giving mattered, but it did not carry as much weight as the present opportunity to give.  After all that Job had suffered, the single thing that seemed to stand between him and deliverance was one more charitable act. When Job was able to reach deep within himself and find the strength to give one more time, he was set free. Likewise, when the widow gave to Elijah rather than give to her son and herself, she obtained deliverance from the famine, and later she experienced a type of deliverance when the Lord mercifully restored her son from the jaws of death.

 

Throughout our mortal journey with the Lord, we learn to love him by emulating him, and in the process we become love. If charity is the pure love of Christ, then we, like Christ whom we love, are charity. Elder Dallin H. Oakes said charity is not an act but what we become. And what we have become holds sufficient power to deliver us.

 

When people learn to extend charity, they become Zion. While the world seeks safety with armies and treaties, while it looks for security in rising markets and fat portfolios, and while it tries untold numbers of options to obtain deliverance, Zion people simply apply acts of charity.

 

 

 

 

 

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See Mosiah 21:17

See Matthew 19:29

See Job 31:6, 16-23

Job 42:10

See 1 Kings 17:10-24

See Dallin H. Oaks, “The Challenge to Become,” Ensign, Nov 2000